Why Japan's Tech Industry Is Failing

For decades, Japan has been the global leader in consumer electronics. Want to know what the next hot gadget is? Just take a look at what the Japanese are throwing out.
Or at least that's how it used to be.
Today, the most important gadget is the smart phone. And while Japan has been on the bleeding edge of phone features for years, they are not ahead of the game here. Apple and Google, American companies, are leading the way. Sure, the components are made overseas, many of them designed by Japanese companies, but most of their contributions are internal. The logo on the back is of a bitten piece of fruit.
The reason Japan's tech companies are beginning to falter (and this is just speculation for speculation's sake) is because they lost their 'Cool'. Sony used to be a powerful name. It stood for quality, craftsmanship, and prestige. They were also cool as hell. The WalkMan was as much a fashion statement as it was a portable music device. But with the advent of cheaper knock-offs and price wars, Sony has lost a lot of it's caché.
While Japanese companies may lead the way in feature sets, oddly enough, that isn't always what consumers are looking for. People want devices that will impress their friends, or at least will blend in with them. In the phone space, this means iPhones and Androids. When an iPhone sells, it only bears Apple's name, and does nothing for Japanese tech companies' brands. While Android phones are adorned by names like Sony and Samsung, people still refer to them as 'Android phones'.
It's a question of branding, or lack of it.